The present invention relates to room air conditioners and more particularly, to room air conditioners having a divider wall.
Room air conditioners typically are positioned in a window or in a through the wall sleeve such that a front part of the air conditioner unit is positioned in a space to be cooled, such as a room, and a back part is exposed to the exterior of the space, typically the outdoors. The interior of the room air conditioner includes a compressor for compressing gaseous refrigerant, a condenser to condense the gaseous refrigerant to a liquid, and to release heat in the process, and an evaporator to allow the refrigerant to evaporate, and to absorb heat in the process. The condenser is positioned in the back part and the evaporator is positioned in the front part. A blower is utilized to draw room air in through an inlet grill, to pass over the evaporator so that heat from the air is given up to the evaporator, and hence cooled, and the air then passes through the blower to pressurize the air, causing it to flow out of the air conditioner through an outlet grill back into the room. Generally, the room air is continuously recirculated from the room and back into the room. A divider wall is typically provided between the front part and the back part of the room air conditioner to prevent the cooled air from flowing into the back part of the air conditioner and to prevent the heat from the condenser from flowing into the front part. In a typical room air conditioner, the dividing wall includes a metal wall extending across the full width of the room air conditioner to provide structural strength to the air conditioner and to provide a mounting location for some components of the air conditioner. The dividing wall is typically secured at a bottom end to a base plate and is connected by a plurality of straps to the condenser coil or its housing.
The dividing wall also may include components of a shroud for the blower which defines the air flow path. Typically, however, the shroud is comprised of a plurality of separate parts which are required to be assembled together.
A room air conditioner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,741, in which an expanded plastics material is molded to form air flow paths and into which a metallic dividing wall bulkhead 44 is molded. The complex molded shape of the shell requires a complex and expensive mold.
A room air conditioner is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,276,157 which includes a two-piece air scroll and a metal dividing wall extending across the full width of the air conditioner.
It would be an improvement in the art if there were provided a dividing wall structure utilizing a minimum of low cost parts which can be easily assembled together to provide the necessary structural integrity and air flow path construction for a room air conditioner.
The present invention provides for a room air conditioner having a dividing wall structure made of a small number of parts there are easily manufactured and assembled to provide structural integrity to the room air conditioner and to define an air flow path in the air conditioner.
A portion of the dividing wall, which can be formed of an expanded plastic material, such as expanded polystyrene, surrounds at least a portion of an air moving device, such as a blower wheel, and forms an air flow path in the air conditioner which extends through an evaporator coil and a front panel of the air conditioner. The wall also includes a metal component which extends less than a full width of the air conditioner and which is secured independently of the expanded plastic wall portion.
Preferably the metal wall member includes a vertical bend and more preferably, two vertical bends so that the metal wall member comprises generally a Z-shape to enhance the strength of the wall.
The expanded plastic portion of the wall is preferably formed in two parts, a first part being an air scroll shaped cavity for receiving the blower wheel and the second part comprising an air inlet for directing an air flow into the blower wheel and an air outlet passage for directing an air flow from the air scroll to the air outlet. In an embodiment, the two separate parts have complementarily shaped portions permitting the parts to be joined together in a mating relationship. The second part may have a ledge portion formed to engage with a complementarily shaped portion in the front panel of the air conditioner to permit the parts to be mated together without requiring the use of additional fasteners. A foam sealant can be used between the two parts to seal the parts together and to seal the air housing to an outer wrapper of the room air conditioner.